Thursday, 31 May 2012

Q+A with Sylvie from +ESTATEofMIND

Crown St, Surry Hills is one of my favourite shopping destinations in Sydney. You can stroll down the leafy street for hours and stumble upon some amazing treasures. Last year I discovered +ESTATEofMIND, an amazingly quirky boutique and home of some of Australia's most exciting designers, such as Michael Lo Sordo, Flowers for a Vagabond and Ashleigh Taylor.

The Fashion Patriot chatted with owner of +ESTATEofMIND, Sylvie to find out why +ESTATEofMIND is so special and some of her favourite pieces in store at the moment.

How would you describe your personal style?

I'm a bit of a chameleon, I tend to dress in theme most days.

Where are your favourite places to shop in Australia?

I love a good scavenge through seedy old vintage stores, but I also don't mind hitting up small boutiques that sell Australian designers.

Who is your style crush?

I'm not one to crush on just a single persons style, but throw in a mix bag of Karen O, Chloe Sevingy and Bjork and we got a date!

I was fed up with the shit Sydney fashion scene, and with every store stocking the same brands, same style, same boring everything!

How does +ESTATEofMIND differ from other popular boutiques?

We sell garments other stores deem a risk. We also take on labels that are just starting out or a fresh on the scene straight out of uni, which again other stores don't generally do as they like labels that have a following or that they are confident people will buy.

What is your buying process like?

Quite fun actually, I look for the most crazy , fun looking items that I lose my shit just looking at and get it in. Pretty simple.

What is your criteria for choosing brands to stock?

They must fit in with our style & look that we try to encourage (nothing plain Jane) and also they must not be too populated within other stockists.

What is your favourite piece in-store at the moment? Why?

Hands down all the OS accessories we just got from Manila. They're made as a replica of humans bones, so think big oversized neckpieces made of skeleton vertebrae, leather caps with teeth, ribcage leather harnesses...

What is your favourite trend for SS13?

We kinda steer away from generic trends and create our own, so next season I got inspiration from Tokyo and we're getting some pretty wild pieces, think print on print on print on print!! Pretty much everything we like to do is quite excessive and x100 compared to everyone else.

Where do you see +ESTATEofMIND in 5 years?

Ummm pimpin out cool ass threads to the cool cats in Tokyo/Berlin & Melbourne like a boss!!!